It’s time for a weekend edition round these parts, and after recent Regular Car Reviews pieces about Honda CRX:s, one did wonder if those small hatchback coupes were the best things in their class. Sure, from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s, plenty of Japanese-originating small front-wheel-drive coupes were available, but it’s possible no other model is currently in quite such high demand as the CRX. The CRX isn’t perfect, but seemingly the competitors would have been less so.
It’s only logical, then, to trot out the possible alternatives for the Honda, back in its day. What would you have got?
The first one to go is the Toyota Cynos, which was renamed the Toyota Paseo in some markets.


The Tercel-derived Cynos/Paseo isn’t such a bad looker, even if it’s hardly exotic in any way. The first iteration came out in 1991, and it featured a small grille in between the headlights.

 

The second generation car, made from 1995 to 1999 had the grille disappear, replaced by a fairly large cowboy hat Toyota logo. The glasshouse was different, too, and the forward-leaning, overhangy look was somewhat lessened.

Inside, there wasn’t much to get excited about, as the seat cloth choices were iffy even for 1990s, and the dashboard was decidedly generic and econoboxian.

But still – viewed from the bubble car Yaris viewpoint of today, the Paseo draws out a modicum of excitement. With 90-100 horsepower from the 1500cc engine, it was simple and light, the center of gravity lower than today, and you could count on it getting up and going without too many fussy options muddling the picture. That’s the beauty of cars of its ilk, there just aren’t many like it churned out today.
And yes, that’s what this weekend edition is set out to celebrate.